


The Art of Love

by bonniepride



Series: Toon Town AU [3]
Category: Big Hero 6 (2014), Frozen (2013), Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Daniel Hamada, M/M, Toon Town AU, Who Framed Roger Rabbit AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 07:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8969092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonniepride/pseuds/bonniepride
Summary: Tadashi and Fred have a pretty perfect life, having finally settled down for good in Toon Town in their own home. But there's just one thing that could make it ever more perfect, and that's a child of their own. It isn't easy for toons in a non-canon relationship to actually get a baby, but Tadashi just might have found a way to make it possible if Fred agrees.





	1. Chapter 1

“Fred?” 

“Mm?” Fred turns over in bed to look at his husband lying next to him, looking absolutely beautiful in the moonlight streaming in through their bedroom window. Of course, Tadashi really didn’t look that much different from the day they’d met--toons, as the cartoon characters who came into the real world were called, didn’t actually age, so both guys looked practically the same as they had since they had “appeared” (the toon equivalent of birth) in the Disney studios back in 2013. A lot had happened since then--honestly, it was a miracle that they were actually here, together, right now. Tadashi hadn’t been supposed to fall in love with Fred--according to his character design, he was supposed to be in love with another character from their movie, Honey Lemon--and the fact that he’d chosen to follow his heart and actually start dating the man he truly wanted to be with had caused some definite consternation from the people in charge of their movie studio. Not wanting to raise controversy by having openly gay toons representing their “family” company and also not wanting to stand for two characters going completely off-script, they’d almost punished Tadashi with a “redesign”, something that would have completely wiped his memory of everything he’d experienced in the human world and, the studio had hoped, would cause him to actually fall in love with the “right” person by adding further restrictions on his character. Fortunately, though, thanks to the timely intervention of the studio’s most iconic and powerful character, Mickey Mouse, Tadashi had not only managed to escape what would have been a horrible fate for all of those involved, he was able to finally openly live his life with the man that he loved. And openly they did--as of two years ago, following the finale of the  _ Big Hero 6 _ TV show that Disney had created based off of their original movie and the filming of the film’s sequel, the two had actually gotten married, to much fan fare from both the toon community and the fans who had rallied together to support the couple. The couple had now settled down in a local toon community, in a house not far from where the rest of their family and friends lived and close enough that Fred could still get to the studio when and if they ever needed him for future projects. Still, the  _ Big Hero 6 _ enterprise seemed to be on a hiatus as of late--even the character appearances in the parks had pretty much tapered off at this point, and, with no news of any new ventures in the near future, it seemed like they could safely plan on finally settling down for good. Disney took too good of care of their characters to let any of them end up homeless or worse, so it wasn’t like the guys had to actually worry about working jobs, but both Tadashi and Fred were too active of characters to be willing to just sit around all day. As such, Fred had become a fantasy/sci fi novelist for young adults (his notoriety as a character making him pretty much an overnight success.) Tadashi, still finding the barriers to what society thought toons could and could not do preventing him and Hiro to open their dream company, Hamada Bros Inc, as of yet, had started classes at a local university to get an official robotics degree and, as of last May, had finally graduated with a doctorate degree as well as a professorship (something rarely, if ever, granted to a toon, and Fred couldn’t have been prouder of him.) So now both men were happily married, working on careers that they loved, and, as far as Fred was concerned, everything was perfect. 

Or… Almost perfect. Recently, the fanboy had the feeling that something was on Tadashi’s mind. He didn’t know what, exactly, and he’d almost been afraid to ask, wondering if, for some reason, his husband was becoming bored with him. He rationally knew that they both loved each other insanely much, but he still sometimes couldn’t understand why Tadashi had chosen him, of all people, to fall in love with. He really didn’t have anything to offer him--as far as he was concerned, he wasn’t really all that attractive, and he’d been intentionally designed as a side character, the comic relief in what was otherwise a rather emotional story. And side characters didn’t end up with the heroes of stories--well, not unless you were Ginny Weasley, in which case you ended up getting married to Harry Potter. But he wasn’t even near as much of a bad ass as Ginny had turned out to be! Even as much as Tadashi reassured him over and over again that he loved him, he still felt so pathetic sometimes in comparison. 

So when he heard Tadashi saying his name in that way, the way that meant he wanted to talk about something serious, Fred braced himself for the worst. 

“Sweetheart, you look like you’re expecting me to say I want a divorce or something,” Tadashi says, frowning when he sees the look on his husband’s face.

“What? No! Why would I say that!” Fred answers, forcing out a laugh.

Tadashi’s frown deepens. “Fred, you know I’d never say something like that, right? I love you, and only you, and I will always love only you.”

“I know,” Fred answers, forcing himself to relax and reaching over to gently stroke Tadashi’s cheek. “I’m sorry, it’s just… Lately it seems like you have something on your mind that you're not telling me. Like, I’ll see you randomly staring off into the distance with a look on your face like you’re really sad or you’re not… you’re not completely happy…” This last part comes out in almost a whisper as the fanboy forces himself to finally voice the fear that had been nagging at him for the past couple months.

“Oh, Fred…” Tadashi says softly before leaning over to press a firm kiss to his husband’s lips. “I am so, so happy with you,” he tells him when he finally pulls away. “And, when it comes to romance and love, yes, I am completely satisfied with what we have--more than that, even. But… You’re right. There is something I’ve wanted to talk to you about that’s been… well, not just on my mind, but on my heart for a while now. I just… I’ve been kind of scared to tell you because I wasn’t sure how you’d take it…”

“Dashi, you know you can tell me anything,” Fred says gently, hating the fact that he could now plainly see that there had been an almost painful longing in his lover’s eyes that he had either been missing or purposefully been ignoring. “I promise, I won’t be mad, whatever it is,” he adds, taking his husband’s hands in his own and beginning to rub his thumbs in reassuring circles on the backs of them.

“Or laugh?” Tadashi asks, and it was clear that, whatever it was that was on his mind, it was something that was so dear to his heart that he couldn’t stand the idea of Fred either hating it or not taking it seriously. 

“Never,” Fred says firmly. 

“A--all right…” Tadashi closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before saying in a small voice, “I--I want a baby.”

“Wait, what?” That had been the farthest thing from Fred’s mind, and for a minute, he just stares at his husband in quiet shock.

“You--you hate me for this, don’t you?” Tadashi says in a quiet, pained voice, starting to draw away from his husband.

“What? No!” Fred cries, instantly reaching over to draw his lover back to him. “Oh, Dashi, no! I don’t hate you! I’m a little surprised, yes, but just because I honestly hadn’t really thought about that before. But sweetheart, if you want to have a baby--yes, I am all for it!”

“Y-you are?” Tadashi asks, looking hopefully up at him.

“Of course I am!” Fred answers, the idea finally starting to actually settle in, and he finds a small glow beginning to fill his chest as he imagines what it would be like for them to have a little boy or girl running around the house, picturing him and Tadashi tucking them into bed or taking them to the park. But then the reality starts to set in on him and he says quietly, “But, sweetheart… You know that, even if we were human, you and I… We couldn’t…”

“I know,” Tadashi hurries to reassure him. Still, he didn’t seem terribly upsets by this news--if anything, he seemed to be fighting a smile now.

“Okay…” Fred says slowly, trying to decide how to take his reaction. “Um… Have you thought of a way to get around that? Because you know that there really aren’t any orphaned toons who aren’t already in families, and so far no toon has ever been allowed to adopt a human because of the ridiculous concerns that we ‘wouldn’t know how to care for a human child’...”

“Yes, I know that,” Tadashi agrees, his eyes sparkling slightly. “But… What if I told you that there was still a way for  _ us _ to have a baby?”

“Like,  _ us _ us? I don’t even see how--”

“I called in a favor,” Tadashi agrees, as if this was the missing piece that Fred needed to put the entire puzzle together. “You remember Christy?”

“Yes,” Fred agrees slowly--Christy had been one of the artists on the team who had developed both his and Tadashi’s characters, and one of the few who had been openly supportive of his and Tadashi’s relationships (a part of him honestly wondered sometimes if she had been part of the reason his and Tadashi’s characters had fallen in love, although he tried not to think about that too much. It was easier to believe that his and Tadashi’s love had come about without any outside forces working on it.)

“Well…” Tadashi eagerly squeezes his husband’s hands. “This would have to be off book--completely non-canon, you understand…”

“Yes?” Fred presses, wishing that he’d stop drawing this out.

“She’s agreed to draw a baby for us!” Tadashi tells him, grinning.”Well, only if you agreed, of course. But since you have--!”

“S-she what?” Fred gasps, trying to wrap his head around this new information. Licensed artists were few and far between--you had to go through extensive training and certification to be able to actually create characters who would come to life because you had to understand the consequences that could come about with bringing something from the imaginary world into the real world. Technically artists were only supposed to actually create characters under the supervision of a movie studio which could ensure that the design was not only flawless before it came about but was safe to be released into the real world. An artist going rogue, especially to create a character for a baby for a non-canon couple, meant that they were risking a lot, even possibly expulsion from the company or, worse, losing their artist’s license. And as much as Fred knew Tadashi wanted to have a child, the idea that someone could lose a job--no, their  _ livelihood _ and probably life long dream over it… 

“If you’re worried about what Disney might do, don’t be,” Tadashi says, reading his husband’s worried expression. “Let’s just say that they still kind of owe us after everything that happened, and Mr. Mouse said we could contact him if we ever needed anything, so I made a few phone calls, and pretty much got everything cleared!”

“And just when were you planning to tell us about this?” Fred asks, trying not to feel upset that his husband had technically been going behind his back on all of this.

“Once I knew that it was even possible,” Tadashi answers, looking slightly taken aback by his husband’s tone. “I--I didn’t want to get your hopes up if you wanted this as much as I do, only to find out that it wasn’t even possible. I knew how painful it was for me wanting a baby but thinking it could never happen, I didn’t want you to have to go through that if you felt the same way.”

“Oh, Dashi…” Fred pulls him closer. “I never, ever want you to have to walk through something like that alone… You should have told me, I could have been there for you…”

“I know, and I’m sorry if maybe it was selfish of me,” Tadashi says quietly, nuzzling into him. “But the important thing right now is that we can actually have our baby, right?”

“Right,” Fred agrees, lovingly kissing him before asking, “So, how long before…?”

“We can call Christy up first thing in the morning and set up a meeting with her,” Tadashi answers with a slight smile. “Once we do that, then she’ll start drawing up designs--she said we can have as little or as much input into the process as we want--and then it might take a few months before he’s finally finished and can arrive.”

“He?” Fred asks, raising a playful eyebrow.

“I-I’m sorry, I know we should both talk about this, I just--” Tadashi mumbles, blushing bright red. 

“Sh--it’s okay,” Fred reassures him, pressing a gentle hand to his lips. “If you want a son, then we are having a son.”

“R-really?” Tadashi asks, relief crossing his features. 

“Yes, really,” Fred answers, lovingly kissing him. “Now, c’mon, let’s get some sleep in, ‘kay? Tomorrow’s going to be a pretty big day for us, starting getting ready for the baby--and, if anything I’ve heard about babies is true, we’d better enjoy our sleep while we can.”

“That’s true,” Tadashi agrees with a slight smile, kissing him back. “I love you so much, Fred,” he says softly as he nuzzles up against his husband.

“I love you too,” Fred answers with a warm smile.

0o0

“All right, so, let’s get this started!” Christy says, gesturing for Tadashi and Fred to sit in the two chairs she had squeezed into her office just for the occasion. She seemed just as excited as the expectant parents, if not more so.

“Thank you,” Tadashi says, giving her a warm smile as he takes the seat next to Fred,eagerly squeezing his husband’s hand. “And thank you for being willing to do this, you have no idea how much it means to us!”

“I’m more than happy to do it!” Christy reassures him. “Honestly, I’ve been bubbling over with ideas, but before I actually started anything, I wanted to talk to you make sure what your preferences were so that I didn’t design a kid that was completely wrong for you two!”

“Tadashi and I actually talked about that, and we decided that we’d honestly rather have as little a hand in that process as possible,” Fred admits after trading a look with his husband. “We’d like final approval, of course, but we’d rather this be as close to the actual process of having a baby as possible.”

“We don’t want to have too many expectations for what the baby will be like, only for them to turn out completely different--not that we wouldn’t love them either way, but we’d rather make this more organic, y’know?” Tadashi adds.

“That makes sense,” Christy agrees. “Puts a little more pressure on me to make all the decisions, but it also gives me more freedom, so I can definitely work with that! You’re sure there’s not anything you really want, though?”

“Well…” Tadashi and Fred trade a look before Tadashi tells her, “We were kind of hoping for a son. Unless you already have plans for a girl, in which case, that is completely fine!”

“No, actually,” Christy reassures him with a grin. “Call it artist’s intuition, but I’d already started sketching ideas for a little boy.”

“Really?” Tadashi gives her a relieved smile.

“Really,” Christy answers warmly. “Now, there is one thing I want to talk with you two about before we go any much further with this.”

“Okay,” Fred agrees, sensing Tadashi stiffening next to him at the artist’s words and reaching over to reassuring squeeze his husband’s hand.

“I know you keep referring to your son as a ‘baby’, and if that’s really how you wanted things, I could attempt that,” Christy says, pressing her fingertips together. “But the truth is, I think it might be wiser for him to arrive as maybe a young child or a toddler--five or six years old, maybe. I only say this because, as you know, toons don’t age unless their artist chooses to have them do so, and I’ve seen too many cases of a baby character who grows mentally and emotionally older but is trapped in an infant’s body and greatly resents it. I’m not saying that I can’t age your son as he matures! I’m just saying that I feel changing his physical age shouldn’t happen more than is necessary since that’s not how toons are designed--maybe once when he reaches adolescent maturity and again when he reaches adulthood, although he only has to age when and as far as he wants to. So yes, you can completely veto that, especially if you really want a baby to begin with, but that’s my two cents on the matter.”

“Wow, that is a lot to think about,” Fred admits, not wanting to say too much before hearing what his husband had to say. “Um, Dashi, do you--?” 

“Well,” Tadashi says slowly, “as much as I’d like to think our son could grow up and mature like a normal child could, you’re right, he can’t. And you make a lot of really good points. So if you really think that it will be what’s best for him--yes, let’s do it.”

“Great!” Christy beams at him. “Glad we can agree on that! Now all that’s left is to get to work on finishing him! Do you want to see some of the sketches I’ve made so far?” ‘

Fred honestly was fine either way, seeing them or leaving it as a complete surprise, but Tadashi said “Yes!” so enthusiastically that he knew that, even if he hadn’t wanted to, he was going to be seeing pictures of his son sooner rather than later. Son… That was still going to take some getting used to, but in a good way.

“Oh my gosh…” Tadashi presses a hand to his mouth the minute the sketches are in his hands, looking like he might start crying.

“You okay?” Fred asks, more concerned about his husband’s well being than the pictures at the moment.

“If you really hate them that much, I can definitely start back over!” Christy adds in quickly.

“N-no!” Tadashi says, looking up at her. “Sorry, it’s not that I’m upset, it’s just--he’s perfect.”

Fred finally allowed himself to look down at the sketches, and with an instant he knew that his heart had been claimed by this little boy who undeniably belonged to him and the man he loved. The sketches were still rough, and there were little bits of scrawling text around the pictures with notes like, “Blue eyes? Tadashi’s shape?” and “Hair color--black or brown?” Even though apparently a lot had yet to be decided, Fred couldn’t be more in love with his as of yet unborn son, and one look over at Tadashi told him that his husband felt the exact same way. 

“I’m glad you think so!” Christy says, beaming. “Well, it looks like I have my work cut out for me, but I’m excited to see how this little guy turns out!”

“Me too,” Tadashi agrees, smiling back at her as Fred gently squeezes his hand. “Again, t-thank you for being willing to do this for us!”

“Oh, of course, it’s my pleasure!” Christy reassures them, standing up, something that the two men took as a sign to do likewise. 

“How long exactly can we expect before…?” Fred asks, not wanting to sound pushy but knowing that they needed to have some idea of how much time they had to prepare.

“Well, considering I’m still working on the studio’s latest movie, I regrettably can’t devote all of my time to this,” Christy admits. “So it may still be another couple of months before he’s ready to arrive…”

“That might actually be a good thing,” Tadashi admits. “We’ll need that long to get his room set up and everything!” 

“Exactly!” Christy agrees with a relieved laugh. “This works out perfectly, then!”

“Um, just to make sure--I know that we told you that we didn’t want to know too much ahead of time, but if you could give us some idea of what he might be interested in so that we can know what on Earth to put in his room….?” Fred says, realizing that they did need some idea of how to prepare for their son’s arrival.

“He has two major nerds for dads--I think you can figure it out from there,” Christ tells him with a slight smile.

“Right--so superheroes and Star Wars and Hogwarts it is!” Tadashi laughs.

“C’mon!” Fred starts eagerly tugging on his arm. “We need to get going!”

“Where, exactly?” Tadashi asks with a bemused smile. 

“Where else? To go shopping for our son!” Fred answers with a grin. 

“All right, all right, I get it!” Tadashi chuckles, wrapping his arms around his lover. “We’ll get right on that--but I think there’s one stop we need to make first.”

“Really? Where?”

“A certain cafe comes to mind.”

“Oh? Oh! Yeah!” Fred beams at him. “I guess we should let the family know, huh?”

“Exactly!”

“Then yes--that is definitely our first stop!”

About an hour later they pull up outside of the cafe, although it felt like much less time given they’d spent the entire time discussing ideas for their tyke’s room. Fred wanted to paint the walls to make it look like a Hogwarts’ dormitory, whereas Tadashi favored a Toy Story theme, with fluffy white clouds on a background of blue, saying that it would make the room more “open” and “lighter”. Fred was honestly beginning to suspect that Tadashi had been planning this out for much longer than he’d admitted to, given he seemed to have exact ideas as to how everything should fit in the room. Still, he wasn’t going to back down that easily.

“If Hogwarts was good enough for Harry when he was eleven--” he protests.

“But our son is only going to be five or six!” Tadashi counters. “I think it might be too dark if we made the room exactly like the dorms were in the movies, and it might give him nightmares at night if he thought that there might be monsters hiding behind the curtains and everything!!”

“But there are no monsters in Hogwarts! If anything, he’d feel safer because he’d be in a school with magical protection around it!”

“...All right, you have a point…”

“See?” 

“But I still think it might be a bit much--he’s going to be just a kid, he needs lots of open space to play and run around in, not some really fancy room where he’ll be afraid of accidentally breaking something!”

“He won’t be afraid of breaking something!”

“Tell you what, compromise--we start out with the Andy’s room base on the walls and add in a lot of other nerdy stuff,  _ including _ Hogwarts, to begin with, and then when he gets older if he thinks he’d like a Hogwarts room or something like that, then we can change it. That work for you?”

“...I get the feeling that I’m not going to win this argument no matter what I say, am I?”

“Nope!”

“All right, tell you what, I’ll see you the Toy Story walls and raise you a Firebolt and a Hogwarts canopy bed--because, don’t lie, canopy beds are awesome for turning into secret forts or pretty much anything else you want!” 

“Hm… Can the curtains be blue to match the rest of the room’s color scheme?”

“I could be down with that. But wouldn’t that make our son a Ravenclaw?”

“...You’re right, I guess it would!”

“And here I had such high hopes that he’d be a Gryffindor like his dad!”

“Sorry, love, looks like he’s taking after his papa,” Tadashi answers, lovingly pecking him on the cheek.

“I thought you were Hufflepuff!”

“I straddle the border on that…”

“You took the Pottermore quiz, you are definitely Hufflepuff, you can’t disavow that!”

“All right, fine, he takes after his uncle!”

“Thank you, that’s better.”

“And, speaking of uncles--think we should go in and actually tell the future uncle and great-aunt the good news?”

“Let’s!” Fred agrees.

“All right then!” Tadashi beams and pecks him lovingly on the cheek before opening his door and climbing out. Fred does likewise, and his husband meets him around the front of the car, wrapping his arm around his waist before starting to lead him towards the door. 

“Tadashi! Fred!” Aunt Cass cries, grinning as she sees the the two men walking in the door before hurrying over to them. She’d been lucky--Disney had let her keep the Lucky Cat Cafe set after they were done with it, moving it into the nearby Toon community for her, and she’d kept it up and running (very successfully) ever since then. It still had to used for filming on occasion, but mainly it was just their home. Or, it had been Tadashi and Fred’s home for a year or two (Fred hadn’t been lucky enough to actually have a family to go to after the movie, and so the Hamadas had taken him in once the filming was done), but then the two had finally gotten married and moved into their own place. So now it was just inhabited by Aunt Cass, Hiro, Baymax, and Mochi, which seemed to be working well for them (although Tadashi had to wonder how long it would be before Hiro and his boyfriend, Ezra Bridger from the Disney Channel show  _ Star Wars Rebels _ , finally made things official and moved into a house or apartment of their own.) Fred and Tadashi tried to visit as frequently as possible, but even though they came over for dinner at least once a week, Aunt Cass always acted like it had been an eternity since she’d last seen them.

“Hey, Aunt Cass,” Tadashi says, wrapping his arms around her in a tight hug. “How are you?”

“Good!” his aunt answers, smiling up at him. “Business is booming, and Hiro hasn’t blown anything up in over a week or had one of his inventions go haywire and start attacking the customers, so that’s a pretty successful week in my books!”

“In mine too,” Tadashi chuckles--wow, their version of “successful” was kind of worrisome, but hey, they had to be grateful for whatever they could get.

“So, what do I owe this pleasure to?” Aunt Cass asks, giving her eldest nephew on last tight squeeze before finally releasing him. “Usually you two wouldn’t come over in the middle of the day like this!”

“Well…” Tadashi grins over at his husband. “Fred and I actually have something we want to tell you and Hiro--is he here?”

“He is!” Aunt Cass agrees. “You actually have perfect timing--he’s going out with Ezra this evening, but he hasn’t left out yet, so you can definitely talk to him.”

“Perfect!” Tadashi beams at that. “Is there somewhere that we can go that’s more... private?”

“I suppose so--I think one of the girls can watch the shop for me for a few minutes,” Aunt Cass agrees, her brow furrowing. “I’d ask if something was wrong, but you seem too happy for that to be the case. You’re certainly being mysterious, though.”

“Sorry,” Tadashi tells her with an apologetic smile. “I swear, we’ll clear this up in just a minute, but Hiro would kill us if we told you before we told him.”

“All righty then.” Aunt Cass flashes them another curious look before heading over to the counter, speaking to the girl currently running the register--she seemed pretty young to be working in a cafe, but Tadashi recognized her as Crumbelina DiCarmello, one of the Sugar Rush racers from  _ Wreck-It Ralph _ , and he knew that most of those characters were a lot more mature than their child-like appearances suggested (again, there was the physical versus mental/emotional age mismatch, something which he knew was slightly frustrating for the younger characters who felt that they weren’t being taken seriously just because of their appearances--Tadashi was definitely beginning to understand why Christy had suggested starting his and Fred’s son out as a young child instead of as a baby.) 

After a brief conversation Crumbelina, Aunt Cass smiles over at Fred and Tadashi and motions for them to follow her into the back of the shop and up the steps that led into the main house. Soon the couple finds themselves seated on the comfortably worn couch while the older woman heads up to the bedroom that had originally shared by both Hiro and Tadashi to retrieve the youngest Hamada sibling. Approximately thirty seconds after her footsteps end, signaling that she’d reached the top of the stairs, there’s a loud cry of happiness and, about thirty seconds after that, Tadashi barely has time to see his little brother tumbling down the last few stairs before launching himself onto him.

“Nii-chan!” Hiro cries, wrapping his arms around his beloved older sibling--somehow the fact that they no longer lived in the same house had made the younger boy even more physically affectionate than he’d used to be when they shared a room and saw each other every day. Not that they didn’t still see each other regularly, both at the cafe and on campus (Hiro had also started taking classes at the local university, but when he’d been told that he was “too young” to become a professor once he’d finished his robotics degree--another unfortunate stereotype that came from being a teenager physically but an adult mentally--he’d stubbornly started a degree to become an artist. Most people didn’t believe that he’d ever actually get certified and were just “humoring” him, but Tadashi had faith that, if any toon could break the barriers and become an actual artist, it was Hiro.)

“Hey, otouto,” Tadashi says, lovingly ruffling his younger sibling’s hair. “How’s my favorite little bro doing?”

“Good!” Hiro answers, grinning up at him. “But what about you? Aunt Cass said that you had news--what is it?”

“Someone’s eager,” Tadashi chuckles. 

“Duh! Now tell me before my brain explodes!” Hiro huffs.

“Well, if you’re going to be rude about it,” Tadashi teases, “maybe I shouldn’t tell you until you remember your manners!”

“Ugh, fine!” Hiro groans. “ _ Please _ tell me your apparently amazing news!”

“Better,” Tadashi chuckles before smiling over at Fred. “Do you want to tell them, or should I?”

“It’s up to you, love,” Fred answers, pecking him on the cheek.

“Gah, no getting lovey-dovey when I’m right here!” Hiro protests, quickly springing back and out of proximity. 

“All right, all right,” Tadashi laughs, in too good a mood to even tease his younger sibling about it. “I guess I’ll tell it. You guys ready for this?”

“I’ve been ready!” Hiro answers, rolling his eyes.

“Of course, sweetie,” Aunt Cass agrees warmly.

“Well then, in that case…” Tadashi feels Fred squeezing his hand eagerly for support before blurting out, “We’re having a baby!”

There was dead silence for a full minute.

“You’re… You’re what?” Hiro finally manages to get out. “I--How is that even physically possible? Unless there’s something you haven’t been telling me, Dashi!”

“Sorry, that came out wrong,” Tadashi says with an embarrassed smile. “I don’t meant that either of us is pregnant--that would just be weird, even for toons! What I meant is, one of the artists at Disney has gotten permission to and currently is designing a baby for us!”

“O-oh my goodness... T-Tadashi, Fred…” Aunt Cass’ eyes are as wide as the saucers she serves tea on. “You two--you’re actually…?”

“Yep!” Fred agrees with a grin. “We went to go see Christy today, and she’s already working on sketches! We don’t know that many details, and we’re leaving most of it up to her to keep it a surprise, but we can tell you that it’s going to be a boy!”

“And he’s actually going to be coming as a young child instead of as a baby because Christy thought it would be safer,” Tadashi adds. “But yeah--we can expect him to arrive in a couple months, if we’re lucky!”

“Oh, Tadashi…” Aunt Cass looks like she’s about to cry, and then, moments later, she’s across the room, pulling both men into a tight hug. “I’m so, so happy for both of you! T-this is such a miracle, I can hardly believe it!”

“I can!” Hiro cries, his grin so wide that it looked like it was going to split his face right in half. “I’m going to be an  _ uncle _ ! This is  _ SICK _ !” 

“We wanted both of you to be the first to know since you’re going to be his immediate family,” Tadashi says, hugging Aunt Cass back and pulling his younger sibling into the embrace as well when the teen comes over to join them. 

“And we were also hoping that maybe you’d be willing to help us with the preparations,” Fred adds. “There’s a lot to be done before he gets here, and we want it all to be perfect!”

“Of course we’ll help!” Aunt Cass says, as if unable to believe that they’d doubt for even a second that she’d say otherwise. “We want only the best for my future grandson!”

“Thank you,” Tadashi says, grinning up at her. “You have no idea how much we appreciate this!”

“We’re your family, bro--it’s kind of mandatory,” Hiro answers with a playful smirk. “But, even if it weren’t… I’d still definitely help out nonetheless ‘cause my nii-chan is probably going to need some major help keeping up with the little squirt once he actually gets here!”

“I don’t know whether or not to take that as a compliment, so I think I’ll just say ‘thank you’,” Tadashi tells him with a bemused smile.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Aunt Cass cries, finally letting go of them. 

“What do you mean?” Fred asks, thinking that the most important part was already over.

“You said you needed help getting ready, so help you’re getting! Let me just go ask Di if she’ll look after the cafe for me for the rest of the afternoon and grab my purse, and then we’re going shopping!”

“Ugh, count me out,” Hiro groans, making a face. “No offense, but I really don’t think I’ll be that much help in picking out curtains and all that other boring stuff…” 

“Maybe not in picking out curtains,” Fred answers, “but what about helping make sure that your future nephew has the most epic supply of toys ever?” 

Hiro’s eyes light up at that. “Okay, toy shopping? That’s something I could actually be down with! Hm… I wonder if Ezra would mind rescheduling our date and coming with to help… Guess it never hurts to ask, right?” he says, pulling out his phone and starting to text.

“Somehow I get the feeling that poor Ez is going to be taking the back seat to this kiddo for the next couple of months,” Tadashi observes with a wry smile as he watches the rest of his family already beginning to rearrange their lives and schedules just to accommodate his not even born yet son.

“He’s a special kid, he deserves a little spoiling,” Fred answers with a playful grin.

“As much as I don’t approve of spoiling children too much… As soon as the rest of our friends find out, this little guy is going to get majorly spoiled by all of his ‘aunts’ and ‘uncles’ plus his grandma whether we like it or not, isn’t he?” Tadashi sighs.

“Yeah, I can almost guarantee it,” Fred agrees with a laugh. “But hey, if he’s anything like his papa, he’s going to turn out just fine regardless.”

“You think so?” Tadashi asks with a relieved smile.

“Definitely,” Fred agrees, lovingly pecking him on the cheek.

“I still can’t believe it--two months, and then we’ll be parents! It seems like both way too long to wait and not near enough time to prepare!” 

“I know exactly how you feel.” Fred reaches over to gently squeeze his hand. “But we’ll get through this together, okay?”

“Together,” Tadashi agrees, squeezing gently back. 


	2. Chapter 2

“It’s looking good,” Tadashi says, wiping his brow and taking a step back to survey his handiwork.

“‘Good’?” Fred repeats, appearing shocked by his words. “My darling, I think you might need to have your contacts updated, because this is nothing short of a  _ masterpiece _ !”

“All right, all right, it’s a masterpiece,” Tadashi chuckles, joining his husband by the door of their son’s just completed bedroom. 

“Thank you!” Fred grins and wraps his arm around the other man’s waist as he also looks around. Despite some differences of opinion, it was definitely a room that any kid could be proud of. The cloud covered walls gave it something of a fantasy look, only added to by the child-sized canopy bed with it’s sky blue hangings and Hogwarts themed quilt (a gift from Honey Lemon, who had picked up the arts and crafts bug, a hobby she pursued in the evening after getting off of her job at a local fashion magazine.) The rest of the room was covered in bits of child-appropriate nerd memorabilia, many of them gifts from well wishing friends and neighbor. Despite Disney’s insistence that the fact they were allowing a child for a non-canon gay couple to be created not be leaked into the main media, that didn’t mean that word hadn’t spread in the toon community, especially among Tadashi and Fred’s closest friends. Elsa had gifted their unborn son a small model ice castle, unmeltable and filled with small figures of the main cast of  _ Frozen _ , also made of ice. Hiccup and Astrid had arrived one evening with a plush Night Fury for the tyke. Hiccup even offered to take the little boy out for flying lessons on Toothless when he got older (something which Tadashi thanked him for, but honestly never intended to actually let happen, at least not for a good long while.) Probably the most enthusiastic in “helping” with preparing for the child’s arrival was, to everyone’s surprise, Ezra. At first Tadashi had feared that Ezra might resent the fact that Hiro’s attention was now divided between his boyfriend and his future nephew. Contrary to expectations, however, Ezra was just as excited, if not more so, than the boy’s biological uncle, offering more assistance than was probably needed in helping prepare for the arrival. He seemed almost to be competing with Aunt Cass and everyone else to start the process of spoiling the little boy off properly, until his crew and adopted family, after a quiet conference with the expectant parents who were finding it hard to even find a moment to themselves even in their own home, had forced him to reign in his enthusiasm. Still, if it hadn’t been for his and Sabine’s help, Tadashi doubted that the walls would have ended up painted so perfectly, and it was going to be adorable seeing their little boy playing pretend, dressed in proper Jedi robes (scaled down to fit him, of course) and with his own toy lightsaber (both parents had staunchly insisted that a real one was far too dangerous, despite Ezra’s protestations to the contrary.) Thanks to Aunt Cass and Honey Lemon completely stocking the closet with a brand new wardrobe and Wasabi having made sure that they had every possible other necessity for caring for a child (his ocd nature coming in handy for once), it seemed like everything had perfectly fallen into place. All that they needed now was for their son to actually arrive, although according to Christy that was still a few weeks away--she’d been swamped with work, and while she was enthusiastically using all her spare time to work on the project (at her own insistence), even artists needed to sleep. Still, as much as the couple couldn’t wait to meet their son, they had decided that maybe having a little bit of time to relax after all of the rushing around making preparations might not be such a bad thing.

“So--you think we’re ready for this?” Fred asks, smiling over at his husband.

“Oh yeah, we’re totally ready!” Tadashi answers, grinning back before happily nuzzling into him. “Just think--in a few weeks, we’ll be in here tucking our little Daniel in for bed for the first time.”

Daniel--that’s what they’d decided to name the baby after much discussion. Tadashi insisted that their son needed a name with a good foundation behind it, something that would keep him strong through whatever trials he might face in life (and given he was probably the first child ever to biologically have the DNA of both homosexual parents, even if they were both toons, he might face more opposition than Tadashi would honestly like to admit.) While Fred had suggested countless names of fantasy and sci fi heroes who had battled the odds, Tadashi had fallen in love with the name Daniel while paging through a children’s Bible his aunt had donated to the extensive library that had already been built for the boy. Fred had held out hope that Tadashi might change his mind in favor of “Frodo” or “Luke” (Ezra had mentioned on more than one occasion that he wouldn’t mind if his future almost nephew was named after him), but when Tadashi had looked up the meaning of the name and it turned out that in Hebrew it meant “God is my judge”, Fred had finally agreed, after slightly altering the meaning to “Only God can judge me”, meaning that no one but the good Lord could say anything about their son’s existence, and if so far it seemed that Heaven was not only in favor or but completely blessing the “birth”, then no one could say otherwise.

“So,” Tadashi says, looking up at Fred after spending a few happy minutes imagining their son playing in the finally completed room, “what do you want to do now?”

“Well…” The fanboy smiles as he lets his arm slip down past his husband’s waist, causing him to let out a tiny gasp of surprise. “We do have the house all to ourselves for once, and there’s nowhere we have to be. What do you say to us taking a little ‘personal time’?”

“I definitely like the sound of that,” Tadashi admits, shivering slightly at what the other man was suggesting but grinning all the same.

“Good.” Fred slips a hand up underneath his husband’s shirt as he uses the other one to pull him into a passionate kiss, Tadashi happily moaning out his name. He was just about to lead him out into the hallway and towards their bedroom to do this properly when suddenly Tadashi’s phone starts ringing.

“Damn,” Tadashi curses under his breath as he breaks away, obviously resenting the distraction.

“Leave it, it’s probably just one of our friends asking about what color we think the streamers at Daniel’s welcome party should be,” Fred urges, starting to pull him back in. “This is more important right now.”

“I know,” Tadashi says, forcing himself not to be drawn back in. “Just let me check it, and I swear, if it’s any of them, I won’t answer it.”

“All right,” Fred sighs, knowing that they wouldn’t have any peace until he let Tadashi check the caller ID.

“Huh.” Tadashi’s brow furrows as he pulls his phone out and looks down at the screen. “It’s from Christy.” He looks guiltily up at his husband. “If it was anyone else, I wouldn’t, but since it’s her do you think I should--?”

“Answer it,” Fred advises him. Even if right now he wanted nothing more than his husband’s gorgeous, naked body beneath him, if there was any chance that it had something to do with their son’s well being, that automatically took precedence.

“Thank you.” Tadashi flashes him a grateful smile before answering the call. “Hello?” he says, holding the phone up to his ear.

“Tadashi, thank goodness you answered!” Christy’s voice came from the other end, sounding slightly panicked.

“Christy? What is it, what’s going on?” he asks, feeling a small spark of panic in his own chest, fearing the worst. 

“All right, so, um, you know how I said I probably wouldn’t be done designing Daniel for another few weeks?” Christy says nervously.

“Yeah,” Tadashi agrees before saying, “Oh, hey, if this is you calling to say that you’ve hit another delay with work and it’s going to be a little bit longer, it’s fine! We completely understand, we’re just grateful that you’ve been willing to do this for us in the first pla--”

“He’s done.”

“He’s… What?” Tadashi asks, sure he had heard wrong.

“He’s done! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean for it to happen!” Christy apologizes. “But I had some plans canceled at last minute and so I thought I’d use the extra time to work on Daniel, and one thing led to another, and then, before I knew it--he was done! I told myself I wouldn’t put the last details in until I could make sure with you guys that you were ready, but suddenly I was looking at him, looking for any changes I still had left to make, but I couldn’t find anything, and I just knew it--he was done!”

“Holy sh--How long ago was this?” Tadashi cries.

“Like, ten minutes, maybe? I’ve been trying to convince myself that I was wrong, but I’m not, and I think you guys need to get over here right now if you don’t want to miss his arrival!” Christy answers.

“I--We’ll be right over,” Tadashi promises before hanging up the phone, momentarily stunned into an almost petrified state. Daniel--he was coming  _ now? Tonight _ ? Sure, everything else was ready, but he suddenly felt not at all sure that he was ready for this!

“Honey, what’s wrong?” Fred asks, laying a concerned hand on his husband’s shoulder, which Tadashi immediately clamps onto for support. 

“I--H-he’s coming, Fred--Daniel’s coming!”

Approximately forty-five minutes later, the two men were dashing through the Disney studios towards the arrival room (the room set aside where most toon characters appeared in the real world once their artist or artists completed designing them.) Silently Tadashi cursed security, who had held them up for a good ten minutes longer than was strictly speaking necessary, getting “clearance” for them. He was going to hold them personally responsible if they were the reason that he missed his son’s arrival!

“You made it!” Christy stands up from the well worn vinyl couch she’d been sitting on when they come racing into the waiting room outside of the arrival room. 

“O-of course!” Fred pants, flashing her the best smile that he can manage while trying to catch his breath. “W-wouldn’t miss it for the world!” 

“W-we didn’t miss it, did we?” Tadashi asks desperately.

“No, you didn’t,” Christy reassures him. “Honestly, you probably didn’t have to rush as much as you did--you of all people should know that toons tend to take their own sweet time when arriving.”

“I-I know,” Tadashi agrees, finally beginning to feel like his lungs weren’t imploding on themselves. “Just didn’t want to take any c-chances!”

“Understandable.” Christy gives him a warm smile. “Well, now that you’re here, it’s just going to be a matter of waiting. I may go grab us some coffee at some point--depending on this little guy’s temperament, we may be in for a bit of a wait.”

“Do you mind if we start calling our family and friends, let them know what’s going on?” Fred asks, pulling out his phone.

“Probably a good idea,” Christy agrees. “Although, I will say, probably best if you don’t have them actually come here--it’s a little different when a child toon arrives than when an adult or even teen one arrives. He’ll be like any other child--too many people and he’ll feel overwhelmed. Better to start him off with just you two, and then  _ maybe _ immediate family later tonight, if he seems to be adjusting well. We don’t want to hit him with too many people at once or he’ll get overwhelmed.”

“You’re pretty good with this stuff,” Fred observes, unable to hide a smile when he sees that his husband is already plastered to the window in the door that allowed a visual into the arrival room.

“I have younger siblings,” Christy says with a smile and a slight shrug. “Plus I’ve been involved in my share of toon arrivals over time, so I’ve had some definite experience with this sort of thing.”

Fred started out the calls with Aunt Cass and Hiro. It pained him slightly that he didn’t have an actual biological family of his own to tell the good news to--his “dad” in the movie had been played by the actual comic book artist Stan Lee with a filter put over him, and while Fred did view him as something of a father figure, so did the other hundreds of characters that the man had invented in his lifetime--Fred was nothing special, and so he had to make do with what he had in the way of extended adopted family. Still, the fact Aunt Cass sounded just as excited for him as she did for Tadashi definitely helped numb the pain somewhat, and it was almost easy for him to imagine that he was actually an official part of the family--something that he knew the motherly woman would have assured him that he was. The call to the Hamadas was followed by ones to all of the couple’s closest friends, starting with the Big Hero 6 cast and working out to their loved ones who came from other film families. Still, he kept a wary eye on the door, prepared to drop everything the moment that Tadashi showed any sign that there son was arriving. But by the time he had called everyone in his contact list, some of them twice by accident, there had been no progress.

“Are you sure that you didn’t make a mistake?” Tadashi finally asks Christy worriedly. “Maybe he isn’t actually finished!”

“Trust me, I’ve done this enough times to know--he’s definitely finished,” the artist states firmly. “He’s just taking his sweet time getting here.”

The hours passed by, and Tadashi finally swapped out places with Fred, but only because he’d almost dropped from standing in one place for so long. He insisted, though, on going back on duty as soon as his mandatory ten minute rest period was over. Christy eventually offered to go get coffee for all of them, saying that it might turn out to be a long night, and Fred had accepted, thinking that a little caffeine couldn’t hurt in a situation like this. He was just finally growing desperate enough to riffle through the pages of some ridiculous tabloid that was sitting in the magazine rack, just to get his mind off of things, when he suddenly hears a soft gasp coming from his husband’s direction.

“What is it?” he asks, instantly dropping the magazine and crossing the room to join him.

“L-look,” Tadashi whispers, pointing through the glass and moving slightly so that the fanboy could see through the window as well. 

At first Fred didn’t really see anything, but after a moment he saw the small cloud of tiny, indistinct specks of light shimmering over the hospital bed that had helpfully been set up in the room. The specks soon starting to grow and converge, creating a solid outline and then a full form and then--

“O-oh my gosh…” Tadashi whispers to Fred, his eyes never leaving the little boy who was now lying motionless on the bed. “I-Is that--?”

“Yeah,” the fanboy agrees, wrapping his arm around his husband’s waist and pulling him close, feeling tears starting to prick at the backs of his own eyes. “That’s our little Daniel.”

“D-do you think we can go in?” Tadashi asks quietly after a minute, turning to him.

“Well…” Fred considers this, not sure how exactly things were supposed to happen in this situation. Usually it was considered common courtesy, if nothing else, to let a new toon “wake up” and take a moment to orient themselves before going in--and, if you were following technical protocol, a doctor who specialized in toons was supposed to go in first to make sure that the new character had arrived in one piece, without anything missing due to either a poor crossing over or a flaw in their design. But in this case, doctor aside, it was their son in there, and it almost seemed cruel to let the little boy wake up in the hospital-like room all alone, trying to figure out where he was and what was happening to him.

“I’m going in, whether they like it or not,” Tadashi says firmly, reaching for the door handle.

“Right behind you,” Fred agrees, deciding that he was going to put his responsibilities as a father over what was considered “proper” protocol.

Tadashi gently pushes the door open and together the two cross the room to the bed where their son appeared to still be blissfully asleep, his tiny eyelids fluttering gently and slow, even breaths passing through his rosebud lips.

“H-he’s even more perfect up close,” Tadashi whispers, looking like he actually was going to start crying.

“He is,” Fed agrees in a soft voice, his arm firmly around his husband’s waist to support him. “He takes after his papa.”

“And his daddy,” Tadashi answers, smiling back at the other man and gently squeezing his hand.

“Look!” Fred breathes when the little boy suddenly starts squirming slightly on the bed, his eyelids flickering now, close to opening.

“O-oh my gosh…” Tadashi presses against the fanboy, as if unable to believe that the moment he had been dreaming about for so long was actually about to happen.

Finally, Daniel’s eyes blink all the way open, revealing irises of the same deep cerulean as Fred’s but in the almond shape as Tadashi’s. For a moment he stares dazedly up at the two men over him, his tiny face screwed up in concentration, as if trying to discern who they were and what he was doing here. Then, his orbs focus on Tadashi and his tiny lips part, saying in a soft, halting voice, “Papa?” His eyes turn next to Fred. “Daddy?”

“T-that’s right,” Tadashi agrees, his pent up emotion coming out in one long breath as he tries to fight back a happy sob. He reaches down and gently scoops the little boy up into his arms. “W-we’re your parents, Daniel.”

The little boy smiles up at him, his large blue eyes shining as he wraps his tiny arms as best he can around the man’s torso before contentedly nuzzling into him. “Papa,” he repeats happily.

This time Tadashi actually does break down crying, and Fred considers taking Daniel from him for a minute to allow him to process his emotions, but with the way his husband was holding on so tightly to the child and the fact that Daniel was clinging back just as hard, he knew better than to even attempt it. So instead he reaches out to gently stroke his son’s dark brown hair, which turned out to be just as soft as Tadashi’s (and, Fred noted, was cut in such a way that it fell much like the other man’s hair as well), saying gently, “Hey, little guy.”

“Daddy!” Daniel gives him the most adorable gap-toothed grin he’d ever seen, the poor fanboy’s heart completely and totally melting. 

“Yeah, buddy,” he agrees, continuing to stroke the child’s hair as he seemed to like it, gently nuzzling into the touch every time the fanboy did so. “I’m your daddy. And both me and your papa are so, so happy to have you here.”

“Is Papa upset?” Daniel asks quietly, looking up at Tadashi in concern. 

“No, I’m not,” Tadashi hurries to reassure the little boy,quickly working to wipe his tears away. “These are happy tears, bud.”

“Oh--okay.” Daniel nods slowly at that, as if not fully understanding but not wanting to argue the point. “Where are we?” he asks after a moment of comfortable silence in which the two new parents marvel over the tiny new life that actually belonged to them--to both of them. 

Tadashi and Fred exchange a quick look--what exactly were they supposed to tell him? Did he even know he was a toon, and if not, did they risk crushing his reality or not tell him but risk someone much less invested in his wellbeing telling him later on? 

“Bud, how much do you remember?” Tadashi finally says slowly.

“Remember about what?” Daniel replies.

“I…” Tadashi freezes, trying to make the words come out but unable to. 

“Do you know how you got here?” Fred puts in gently. 

“Mm… No,” the little boy admits after a moment, shaking his head.

“All right then, let me ask you something else--do you know what you are?”

“Uh… I’m a boy, right…?” Daniel looks up at him uncertainly. 

“Yes, yes you are, sweetie!” Tadashi hurries to reassure him. “What your dad means is… You’re a toon. Just like us.”

“A… toon?” Daniel says uncertainly.

“Right,” Tadashi agrees. “You know the characters on, like, cartoons and Disney movies?” He honestly wasn’t sure how much Daniel knew about the world in general, their character world or the real world. Christy had told them that he’d probably have general memories and the knowledge that a five-year-old would have but had left most of his backstory blank to allow the parents to start out fresh with their son, with nothing fabricated that would take away from the process of building an actual relationship.

“Yeah,” Daniel agrees, nodding. “Like Mickey Mouse and Elsa?”

“Yes,” Tadashi agrees, unable to keep from smiling as he imagined his little son meeting what he probably viewed as legendary characters as real people. Still, he knew that this next part might be difficult for the little boy, so he tries to keep his tone as gentle as possible as he continues, “Well, the characters from those movies and cartoons--sometimes the show up in the real world, and those characters are called ‘toons’. That… That is what we are.”

“We are?” Daniel asks, his eyes going slightly wide with confusion and possibly just a little bit of fear. 

“Hey, it’s a totally cool thing to be!” Fred cuts in, gently ruffling Daniel’s hair. “It means your dad and me are kind of famous because we were in a really awesome movie called  _ Big Hero 6 _ !”

“Oh…” Daniel stares up at him, seeming to be absorbing this new information. “So… You guys are, like, heroes?”

“Exactly!” Fred agrees with a grin.

“Sort of,” Tadashi counters. “It’s… complicated. It’s hard for even us to understand it all, but we’ll try to explain it better later on. For now--”

“For now there are a lot of people who want to meet you!” Fred puts in enthusiastically. “Your grandma, and all your aunts and uncles--they’re all super excited that you’re finally here!”

“Yeah?” Daniel asks, his eyes sparkling, his previous fear and confusion gone, at least for the moment.

“Totally!” Tadashi agrees, happily touching noses with him, making the little boy giggle. “You ready to go meet them?”

“Mm!” Daniel nods his head eagerly.

“All right then, let’s go!” Fred says, pulling both his husband and son into a loving embrace before starting to lead him towards the door.

“Oh my gosh!” Christy cries when the two walk out into the waiting room, almost dropping her coffee. “I-is that him?”

“It is indeed!” Tadashi agrees, shifting the little boy slightly so that she could see him better. “Daniel, this is Christy--she…” For a moment he was at a loss for words, trying to figure out how to explain her in a way that wouldn’t cause the poor little boy’s head to explode. 

“She’s a really good friend of ours, and she works here at the Disney studios,” Fred says simply--how did he always know exactly the right thing to say?

“Hi…” Daniel waves shyly at her before burying his face in Tadashi’s shirt.

“Oh my gosh, he’s sooo cute,” Christy coos. “Aw man, I want to hold him, but I know he’s probably feeling a little overwhelmed right now…”

“A little bit,” Tadashi agrees, gently bouncing Daniel in his arms in an attempt to make the little boy laugh and maybe feel a little less scared of everything--he didn’t know how exactly he knew to do that, it was almost like an instinct that he hadn’t even realized that he had. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” Christy reassures him when Daniel fails to do more than sneak a few shy looks at her while still clinging doggedly to Tadashi. “I know he’ll come around eventually. Right now you should probably just be focused on getting him home.”

“Right,” Tadashi agrees, relieved that she was being so understanding. 

“Here, after the doctor comes to check on him, I’ll walk you out to your car,” she offers. “Y’know, sort of your security escort to keep others from asking too many questions!”

“That sounds great,” Fred agrees.

The walk back down to the parking lot after the checkup (the doctor had declared Daniel completely healthy) is a fairly quiet one, the adults in the party letting Daniel silently take everything in--he didn’t say much or ask a lot of questions, but Tadashi could see from his curious glances that he was really working hard to understand everything. It was obvious that he was already an extremely intelligent child--it was yet to be seen if that translated into general academic and otherwise prowess, or if he might end up taking after his biological uncle and be something of a genius. Tadashi knew that he and Fred would love him no matter what, but it would be interesting to see how it all played out. Fortunately not many people gave them more than curious looks as they passed, although that could have had something to do with the fact that Christy was leading them through the back hallways of the building to avoid running into too many people.

“All right, here you go--back to your car, safe and sound!” Christy declares with a proud grin once they finally reach Fred and Tadashi’s vehicle. 

“Thank you so much for your help,” Tadashi tells her with a grateful grin. “And, well, for everything!”

“Of course!” Christy answers with a warm smile. “The only repayment is getting to come by and see this guy every once in awhile, or having you guys bring him by the studio for visits.”

“We more than owe you that, we definitely will,” Fred promises. 

“Do you guys have the car seat ready?” Christy asks, glancing through the windows of the car into the back seat. “I know that you had to come over here in kind of a rush, if you don’t I’m sure that one of my coworkers has one you could borrow--”

“Fortunately, Wasabi always thinks ahead and had us keep it in the trunk of the car, just in case,” Tadashi reassures her, carefully transferring his son over to Fred’s arms before heading around to the back of the car to pull out the required device. “Unfortunately,” he admits as he does so, “it’s been a really, really long time since Hiro needed one of these, so my memory of how to use them is a little fuzzy, and I’ve heard it can be killer trying to figure it out…”

“Well, lucky for you, I have baby cousins, so I’m a pro at this!” Christy reassures him, quickly setting to work strapping it in. Tadashi tried to watch carefully to make sure that he’d know how to do it next time, but he still wasn’t completely sure that he had it all straight in his head by the time she finished. Well, there would be time for that later. Right now they needed to focus on getting Daniel home.

“Thank you for coming to our rescue yet again,” Tadashi tells her with a warm smile as he finishes buckling Daniel in. 

“Again, you’re welcome!” Christy laughs before turning to wave to the little boy in the chair. “Bye, Daniel! I’ll see you again soon, okay?”

“Okay,” Daniel agrees, giving her a shy smile before suddenly reaching out to hug her. “Bye, Aunty Christy!”

As she hugs him back, Christy grins like she had just won the lottery.

0o0

“Sweetheart, who are you texting?” Tadashi asks as he carefully navigates the streets of downtown Burbank--as careful of a driver as he was under most circumstances, he was being even more cautious now that he knew his son was riding in the back seat, blissfully staring out the window in silent wonder as he took in the world around him for the first time.

“Aunt Cass,” Fred answers, looking up from his phone. “She really wants us to bring Daniel over so she can meet him, but I said I’d have to ask you because Christy said we weren’t supposed to overwhelm him too much to begin with.”

“Well…” Tadashi was honestly torn. “I mean, part of me says we should play it safe. On the other hand, it almost seems cruel to make her wait to meet her new grandson… What do you think?”

“Maybe we can ask the little guy?” Fred suggests.

“Good idea,” Tadashi agrees, using the rearview mirror to see into the back of the car while not risking an accident like he would if he actually turned around. “Daniel?”

“Yes, Papa?” Daniel answers, tearing his eyes away from the window to look up at Tadashi. The older man couldn’t help but feel his heart melting--he was never going to get tired of hearing his son calling him that.   
“You’re grandma was just talking to your daddy,” he says once he gets over the momentary cuteness induced brain overload. “She wants to see you tonight, but we wanted to know if you felt up to doing that. If you don’t, it is perfectly okay, we can just head home and see her tomorrow, so tell me how you’re honestly feeling right now.”

“Grandma!” Daniel’s tiny face lights up eagerly at that.

“Well, I think we know what he wants to do,” Fred chuckles.

“I think we do,” Tadashi agrees, unable to keep from smiling slightly. “Let’s just hope she doesn’t overdo it…” he adds as he course corrects to head for the cafe.

“Do you honestly believe for a second that she won’t?”

“No, which is what worries me…” Tadashi sighs.

“Well, she means well, at least,” Fred points out.

“Doesn’t make it any less potentially traumatic…”

“Oh, c’mon, your aunt may get a little over enthusiastic at times, but she would never do anything to traumatize her grandson!”

 

“...Okay, I take it back, this could be mildly traumatic,” Fred admits as they pull up in front of the cafe and find the entire street packed with cars.

“Holy--did she invite literally everyone we know?” Tadashi cries.

“It looks like it, yeah,” Fred agrees.

“...Do you think we can make a run for it?” Tadashi asks, already preparing to make a slightly illegal u-turn.

“No, I think we’ve been spotted,” Fred answers as the door to the cafe swings open and Hiro come barreling out, heading right towards them.

“Guess we’ll just have to make the best of it?” Tadashi sighs.

“Hey, don’t worry.” Fred reaches over and gently squeezes his hand. “We’re going to make it through this together, just like we always do. And everyone here obviously cares about Daniel, so if he starts to feel overwhelmed, all we have to do is tell them to back off and you know that they’ll do it.”

“All right, true,” Tadashi agrees, knowing that they really didn’t have a choice at this point.

“Is there a party?” Daniel asks from the back seat, staring out the window with both excitement and a little bit of apprehension.

“It looks like it, yes,” Tadashi answers, turning back to offer him the best smile he can muster under the circumstances.

“This is all for you, buddy!” Fred adds a bit more enthusiastically.

“For me?” Daniel gasps, his eyes going wide.

“Yep!” Fred agrees. “All your aunts and uncles want to meet you--and it looks like your Uncle Hiro is determined to be the first one to do that!” he adds as the raven haired teen reaches the car.

“Oh my gosh, is that him?” he cries eagerly the moment that Tadashi opens the driver’s side door. 

“Yep,” Tadashi agrees, grinning proudly as he steps out and carefully opens the back door to unbuckle his new son from the car seat. “Daniel, I’d like you to meet your Uncle Hiro.”

“Hi…” Daniel smiles shyly up at him, clinging close to Tadashi but surveying Hiro with obvious interest.

“Hey, little guy,” Hiro says softly, appearing to be melting over the sight of his adorable nephew just as much as Fred and Tadashi had been doing all afternoon. “He looks just like you guys!” he adds, grinning up at his brother and brother-in-law. 

“I’d like to think he takes more after his Papa,” Fred says, coming over and playfully tickling his son’s stomach to make him laugh. “The handsome side of the family, y’know?”

“You are plenty handsome!” Tadashi argues back. 

“Girls, girls, you’re both pretty,” Hiro drawls. “Now can I hold my nephew or not?”

“Daniel, would you be okay with your uncle holding you?” Tadashi asks, looking down at the little boy in his arms.

“Mm,” Daniel agrees after a moment’s consideration, reaching his tiny arms out towards Hiro, Tadashi carefully switching the burden over to his younger sibling.

“Hi!” Hiro grins down at the little tyke, obviously thrilled to have him in this close of proximity. “Just so you know, I’m the cool uncle!” 

“Really?” Daniel asks with a slight smile.

“Totally!” Hiro agrees with a firm nod. “I’m going to teach you how to build robots and sneak you gummy bears when your dads aren’t looking and take you to your first bot fight--”

“HIRO!” Tadashi cries in horror.

“Kidding, I’m kidding!” Hiro laughs. “Besides, there aren’t any bot fights in this world, remember?”

“Still…” Tadashi quietly huffs, hoping that his little brother wasn’t going to turn out to be a majorly bad influence.

“All right, so, I think we have a party to get to?” Fred says, laying a gentle hand on his husband’s shoulder.

“Right…” Tadashi agrees, glad for the distraction. “All right, bud, you ready to go meet everyone?” he asks his son.

“Yeah!” Daniel agrees, beaming up at him and seeming much more confident now.

“Let’s go then!” Fred chuckles.

The party turned out to be a major success. Despite Tadashi’s initial fears, Daniel didn’t end up feeling overwhelmed at all. If anything, he soaked the attention up, all while remaining his adorable, sweet self. Ezra was obviously experiencing love at first sight, completely devoted to his adopted nephew, and, after getting his hands on the little boy, he pretty much refused to give him up for the rest of the night, although Aunt Cass definitely made a bid for equal time as she had her rights as the “grandmother”. In fact, Tadashi and Fred had a pretty hard time even keeping track of their son, only catching short glimpses of him as he was proudly paraded around the room by his uncles while the rest of the well-wishers kept the new parents busy with congratulations and giving them well-meaning but sometimes slightly misguided advice (Hiccup made a point of telling them not to listen to his dad’s advice to have the little tyke bang his head against a rock until it broke, and Tadashi assured him that they definitely weren’t planning to do that anytime soon.)

It was Elsa who, after the party had gone on for a sufficiently long period of time, came to the little family’s rescue. As one of Tadashi’s closest friends, she could tell when his patience was wearing thin, and given she’d had more than her experience with young children given all her times in the Disney Parks, she could tell when little Daniel was also at his limit, so the instant she felt that any much more “celebration” would push anyone over the edge, she quickly confiscated the toddler (who was still slightly in awe of her as one of his favorite movie characters) from a protesting Ezra, brought him over to Tadashi, and started escorting the couple and their son towards the door, making their apologies for them in the kind but firm way only a queen could. 

“Thank you,” Tadashi breathes as soon as they’re out the door and back at the car. “I’m sorry you had to do that, I just--”

“It’s your first day as parents--they should have known better than to overwhelm you like that,” Elsa replies. “I’m just glad that it went off as well as it did, considering.” 

“Me too,” Tadashi admits as Fred works on buckling the worn out but still happy little boy into his car seat.

“I’ll let you guys get heading home, but I’ll definitely stop by sometime when things have had time to settle down to check up on you and see the little guy, okay?” she says.

“That sounds perfect,” Tadashi agrees. “Again, thank you for all of your help!”

“You’re welcome,” she responds with a warm smile. “Now I’m going to go see if I can help your aunt get this party back under control and start sending everyone home.”

“Because you certainly know how to bring a party to a stop,” Tadashi jokes, referring to the scene in her movie where she abruptly ended her own coronation celebration.

“Exactly,” Elsa agrees with a playful grin. “Let’s just hope I don’t have to freeze anyone!”

“That would be preferred, yes,” Fred chuckles, coming over to join them.

Elsa waves one last time and then, with a swish of her cape, she disappears back into the cafe. 

“Hey, were you guys going to leave without saying goodbye?” Hiro cries, slipping out the door just as the ice queen enters. 

“No, we weren’t, but it was getting late and it is time we get Daniel home,” Tadashi answers, beckoning him over so he can see that the little boy had already fallen asleep.

“Aw--poor little guy’s all worn out,” Ezra coos, suddenly appearing next to them. 

“Holy sh--” Tadashi just barely bites back a swear (he was going to have to be more careful about that with a minor in the house.) He had no idea how Ezra had managed it, but he got the idea that he was going to be popping up in a lot of unexpected places over the next few months, or possibly even years. 

“I have to get a chance to say goodbye to my grandbaby too,” Aunt Cass says, coming out of the cafe to join them. 

Tadashi and Fred went through another round of mandatory hugs and well wishes, although fortunately this one was a lot quieter than the rest of the ones they’d experienced that night as no one wanted to wake up the sleeping Daniel. Well, except for maybe Ezra, who wanted to actually get to say goodbye to him--the elder Hamada had a feeling that he was going to have to keep an eye on him if he didn’t want to risk his son being eventually kidnapped. And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the little family found themselves pulling out of the driveway and back out onto the street, heading towards home. Tadashi and Fred didn’t really talk much on the way back, both exhausted by the rather unexpected events of the day, and the little they did say was in hushed whispers to prevent from disturbing their son’s slumber. 

As soon as they reached home, Tadashi unbuckled the little boy from the car seat and carried him into the house, Fred going ahead to open the doors for him. He almost wanted to change the tyke into his pajamas once the reached his room, but he hated the idea of waking him and so he figured that maybe, just his once, he could let him sleep in his clothes.

“He looks so peaceful,” Tadashi sighs contentedly once he finally has the little boy settled down under the covers of his bed, the night light they’d gotten him gently glowing.

“He does,” Fred agrees, slipping a loving arm around his husband’s waist.

“It’s like he was always meant to be here…” Tadashi says softly.

“I know he was,” Fred tells him firmly, kissing him on the forehead. “Now, c’mon--it’s been a long day for us too, and we should probably get some sleep while we can. If he’s anything like you’ve said Hiro was when he was a kid, we’re in for an early morning.”

“True,” Tadashi agrees with a wry smile. He leans down to gently kiss his son’s forehead, even as Fred lovingly strokes the little boy’s hair. “I love you, Daniel,” he whispers softly. 

They’re almost out of the room when they hear a soft voice whisper,”Love you, Papa, Daddy.”

Tadashi feels his heart glowing as he and Fred share a smile. He’d heard people talking about the precious moments that came with being a parent, the things that you’d never forget and that were worth more than anything else in the world. This was definitely one of those moments, and he knew that he would never, ever forget it.

 

~End


End file.
